[Breaking] AWS App Runner Ends New Customer Access on April 30. Migrate to ECS Express Mode

AWS will end new customer access to App Runner on April 30, 2026. Existing users can continue using the service, but no new features will be added. The recommended migration path is Amazon ECS Express Mode, announced at re:Invent 2025 in November 2025.

App Runner launched in May 2021 as the simplest way to deploy containerized applications on AWS. Its appeal was straightforward: hand over a container image or source code, and your app goes live without configuring load balancers or auto-scaling.

What Happened

According to AWS official documentation, after "careful consideration," AWS decided to end new customer access to App Runner and "focus on delivering the innovations where customers find the most value."

No complete shutdown date has been announced. This is specifically about ending new customer sign-ups — existing App Runner users can keep running their services after April 30. However, new AWS accounts will no longer be able to start using App Runner.

End of New Sign-ups ≠ Immediate Shutdown. So When Will It Actually Stop?

The first question on everyone\'s mind is: "So when will it actually become unusable?" The short answer: no complete shutdown date has been announced yet.

According to the AWS Service Lifecycle, services are retired in three phases.

App Runner has just entered the Maintenance phase (①). Before it can reach Full Shutdown (③), a Sunset announcement (②) is required, which typically comes with 12 months of lead time. Even if Sunset were announced tomorrow, you\'d still have at least a year.

So what actually happened to other AWS services that went through the "no new customers" phase?

Some services like OpsWorks were fully shut down within 12 months, while others like CodeCommit and SimpleDB have continued running for years in "no new customers" limbo. It\'s impossible to predict which pattern App Runner will follow, but at minimum, a Sunset announcement plus 12 months of grace period is required before the service goes away entirely.

What Should Existing Users Do

First, App Runner won\'t suddenly stop working after April 30. AWS has explicitly stated they will "continue investing in the security and availability" of the service. There\'s no need to rush a migration today.

That said, with no new features being added, App Runner will gradually fall behind competitors like Google Cloud Run and Azure Container Apps. It\'s time to start planning a migration.

AWS offers two main migration paths. The first and recommended option is ECS Express Mode, which inherits App Runner\'s ease of deployment while adding ECS\'s flexibility. AWS\'s official migration guide recommends gradual traffic migration using Route 53 weighted routing (10% → 25% → 50% → 75% → 100%).

The second option is migrating to a standard ECS configuration using AWS CDK L3 constructs or CloudFormation, suitable for teams that need fine-grained infrastructure control.

What Is ECS Express Mode

ECS Express Mode is a new ECS capability announced at re:Invent 2025 in November 2025. Provide a container image and IAM roles, and it automatically sets up an ALB, auto-scaling, SSL/TLS termination, and CloudWatch monitoring.

While similar in concept to App Runner, there\'s a key difference. App Runner completely hid the infrastructure, whereas ECS Express Mode lets users access and modify all auto-provisioned resources (ECS clusters, task definitions, ALBs, security groups, etc.). The design philosophy is "start simple, customize when needed."

There are important caveats. Two of App Runner\'s biggest draws — source code direct deploy and scale to zero — are not available in ECS Express Mode. Replicating the auto-deploy-on-push experience requires setting up GitHub Actions and writing a Dockerfile separately. Running costs also can\'t be reduced to zero during idle periods due to ECS Express Mode\'s architecture.

How Will Costs Change After Migration?

Cost is unavoidable when evaluating a migration. Here\'s a side-by-side comparison of App Runner and AWS Fargate (the compute layer behind ECS Express Mode) pricing in the Tokyo region.

On a per-unit basis, Fargate is roughly 37% cheaper for both vCPU and memory compared to App Runner (x86 comparison). But actual costs depend heavily on your workload characteristics.

Here\'s an estimate for a small web app with 1 vCPU and 2 GB memory.

For always-on, high-traffic apps, ECS Express Mode offers clear cost advantages. For apps with long idle periods, App Runner\'s scale-to-zero makes it significantly cheaper. Migration could mean "lower unit prices but higher total costs" — so running your own estimates is essential.

For detailed pricing, see the official pages:

• ▸AWS App Runner Pricing
• ▸AWS Fargate Pricing

AWS Copilot CLI Also Ending Support in June

Related to App Runner, AWS Copilot CLI will end support on June 12, 2026. Copilot CLI was a tool that simplified building, releasing, and operating container applications on ECS and App Runner.

AWS cited the learning curve of its proprietary CLI and manifest syntax, limited infrastructure visibility, and customization constraints as reasons for ending support. The code will remain available as an open-source GitHub project, but AWS will no longer provide security updates or new features.

App Runner, Copilot CLI, and AWS Proton (full support ending October 2026) — the pattern is clear. AWS\'s "simplified container deployment" services are being consolidated into ECS (+Express Mode) and CDK.

AWS\'s Ongoing Service Consolidation Since 2024

App Runner\'s end of new customer access is part of AWS\'s broader service portfolio consolidation that began in 2024. In July 2024, several services including CodeCommit, Cloud9, and CloudSearch ended new customer access.

AWS has over 200 services, and overlapping functionality has persisted for years. For simplified container deployment alone, there were App Runner, Copilot CLI, Elastic Beanstalk, Proton, and Lightsail Containers at one point. On GitHub\'s App Runner roadmap, the developer community had noted that feature development nearly stopped in late 2024, making today\'s announcement somewhat predictable.

Developer Community Reactions

Developer reactions to App Runner\'s end are largely unsurprised. On the GitHub roadmap issue, developers had been voicing frustration since early 2025: "2024 saw only 2 feature improvements, down from 17 in 2023" and "HTTP/2 support has been in the backlog so long that HTTP/3 is now being requested."

Reactions to ECS Express Mode are mixed. While many welcome "App Runner-level simplicity for ECS," Hacker News discussions point out that "without scale to zero, it\'s not a true App Runner replacement" and "Cloudflare Containers offers more rational usage-based pricing."

When ECS Express Mode was announced in November 2025, many developers had already predicted App Runner\'s demise.

Summary

App Runner served as "the simplest way to deploy containers" for five years, but is now ceding that role to ECS Express Mode as part of AWS\'s service consolidation.

Existing users don\'t need to panic. Based on AWS\'s service lifecycle, full shutdown requires a separate Sunset announcement plus 12 months of notice — and precedents like CodeCommit show that services can continue running for nearly two years after the new-customer cutoff. However, with no new features coming, migration planning should begin sooner rather than later.

ECS Express Mode aims to balance "simplicity and flexibility," but App Runner\'s unique strengths — source code direct deploy and scale to zero — are not available. On the cost side, always-on workloads may see savings, while apps with long idle periods could actually see higher total costs. Check out the detailed overviews on DevelopersIO and Publickey to evaluate whether it fits your use case.

AWS\'s service consolidation will likely continue. Services that are "convenient but overlap with others" could become future consolidation targets. The best preparation is maintaining portable, container-image-based architectures that aren\'t tightly coupled to any single deployment service.

Sources

• ▸ AWS App Runner availability change - AWS Official Documentation
• ▸ AWS Service Lifecycle - AWS General Reference
• ▸ Announcing Amazon ECS Express Mode - AWS What\'s New (November 21, 2025)
• ▸ Build production-ready applications using Amazon ECS Express Mode - AWS Blog
• ▸ AWS App Runner Pricing
• ▸ AWS Fargate Pricing
• ▸ Announcing the end of support for the AWS Copilot CLI - AWS Containers Blog
• ▸ App Runner Roadmap Issue #274 - GitHub
• ▸ ECS Express Mode - DevelopersIO
• ▸ Amazon ECS Express Mode - Publickey
• ▸ AWS Introduces ECS Express Mode - InfoQ (December 2025)
• ▸ ECS Express Mode discussion - Hacker News